Jason Kelce calls out Swifties for rigging ‘Best Team Name’ vote against Eagles

Kelce endorsed Buffalo on Twitter against the Chiefs, which led to Kansas City’s elimination.

Eagles center Jason Kelce speaking to reporters while cleaning out his locker at the NovaCare Complex on Jan. 17.Read moreHeather Khalifa / Staff Photographer

Published Feb. 8, 2024, 12:17 p.m. ET

Jason Kelce is going to great lengths to make sure the New Heights “Best Team Name” bracket is unbiased, but he has met a worthy opponent — Swifties.

The Eagles center has taken to X, formerly Twitter, to hype up teams like the Steelers and Bills in order to keep the Eagles and Chiefs from easily coasting through the bracket.

“The Swifties have this unrealistic infatuation with the Chiefs and Travis Kelce, and they’re only voting based on their love for you, not on their love for the team name, so it wasn’t a realistic representation,” Jason said on Thursday’s episode of New Heights.

Jason advocated for Buffalo to beat Kansas City in the Elite Eight of the poll, posting on X that “If the Bills win this, I swear on Buffalo Bill’s legendary reputation I will jump through a flaming table.”

Now, Jason already said on New Heights after the Chiefs-Bills game that he wanted to jump through a folding table, so he didn’t need the extra boost from their poll win to make it happen. But his tweet helped the Bills narrowly beat the Chiefs. In response, Jason said the Swifties organized to knock out the Eagles in the Final Four, voting for the Vikings to make the final.

But despite the vote manipulation, Jason said the results of the poll still have the best team name in position to win. That team? The Pittsburgh Steelers.

“It’s the best name in the NFL,” Jason said. “What it represents, it hits home because Dad worked in the steel mills. Cleveland is a steel town, or was — not as much as Pittsburgh — but I think it’s U.S. steel, the people who built this country, blue-collar, hard-nosed, lunch pail, that’s football. ...That’s a great team name.”

Later in the episode, though, Jason aimed to use the Swifties’ voting prowess to the show’s advantage. New Heights is eligible for an iHeartRadio Podcast Award for Podcast of the Year.

“For one special group of fans who have joined the show this year ... Swifties, we’re talking to you right now,” Jason said. “Let’s rig this vote, please. This is not for me, it’s for Travis. Please go and vote.”